Overview
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Tuesday a package of measures to strengthen oversight of cooling towers following the summer cluster that sickened 94 people and killed 11.
- City health officials say the Upper East Side cluster is closed with no patients hospitalized and that genetic matching of tower and patient samples is still under way with results expected this fall.
- The Health Department tested 183 cooling towers at 160 buildings and found 59 culture‑positive towers that were cleaned and disinfected, and investigators discovered some towers were not registered with the city.
- New rules include faster lab testing exploration, accelerated enforcement with hearing dates scheduled within 15 days, and a public cooling‑tower map of registrations and inspection histories set to launch by next spring.
- The City Council will hold an oversight hearing and is advancing bills on testing frequency, communication and transparency after inspections since May 8 found violations at roughly 460 of 800 towers and exposed staffing and enforcement gaps.